Grand juries in the United States

A grand jury investigating the Arcadia Hotel fire in Boston, Massachusetts in December 1913.

Grand juries in the United States are groups of citizens empowered by United States federal or state law to conduct legal proceedings, chiefly investigating potential criminal conduct and determining whether criminal charges should be brought.[1]

Like the jury system as a whole, grand juries originated in England and spread throughout the colonies of the British Empire as part of the English common law system. Today, the United States is one of only two jurisdictions, along with Liberia, that continues to use the grand jury to screen criminal indictments.[2] Japan also uses the system similar to civil grand juries used by some U.S. states to investigate corruption and other more systemic issues.[3]

As of 1971, generally speaking, a grand jury may issue an indictment for a crime, also known as a "true bill," only if it verifies that those presenting had probable cause to believe that a crime has been committed by a criminal suspect.[4]

Unlike a petit jury, which resolves a particular civil or criminal case, a grand jury (typically having twelve to twenty-three members) serves as a group for a sustained period of time in all or many of the cases that come up in the jurisdiction, generally under the supervision of a federal U.S. attorney, a county district attorney, or a state attorney-general, and hears evidence ex parte (i.e. without suspect or person of interest involvement in the proceedings).

Federal grand jury for the Roy Olmstead trial, Seattle, 1926

The federal government is required to use grand juries for all felonies, though not misdemeanors, by the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.[5] All states can use them, but only half actually do with the others using only preliminary hearings.[6]

Some states have "civil grand juries," "investigating grand juries," or the equivalent, to oversee and investigate civil issues instead of criminal ones.[7][additional citation(s) needed]

  1. ^ Zapf, Patricia A.; Roesch, Ronald; Hart, Stephen D. (December 4, 2009). Forensic Psychology and Law. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. p. 182. ISBN 978-0-470-57039-5. Retrieved 2 December 2014.
  2. ^ Shapiro, Chava; Clark, James (2023-09-27). "It's Time to Abolish Grand Juries Once and for All". The Nation. ISSN 0027-8378. Retrieved 2024-05-02.
  3. ^ Gastil, John; Fukurai, Hiroshi; Anderson, Kent; Nolan, Mark (September 13, 2014). "Seeing Is Believing: The Impact of Jury Service on Attitudes Toward Legal Institutions and the Implications for International Jury Reform" (PDF). Court Review. 48: 126. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 February 2015. Retrieved 2 December 2014.
  4. ^ Cook, Joseph P. (1971), "Probable Cause to Arrest", Vanderbilt Law Review, 24: 317–39, quoting Beck v. Ohio, 379 U.S. 89, 91 (1964).
  5. ^ Joy, Peter A. (2022-07-27). "How do grand juries work? Their major role in criminal justice, and why prosecutors are using them to investigate efforts to overturn the 2020 election". The Conversation. Retrieved 2024-05-13.
  6. ^ "What is a US grand jury?". BBC. March 13, 2023. Retrieved 2024-05-13.
  7. ^ "DeKalb judge keeps grand jury report from public but allows CEO access". WSB-TV Channel 2 - Atlanta. 12 February 2013.